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muhurgle
Turtles all theway down
Registered: 10/29/03
Posts: 299
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Your opinion
#2107086 - 11/14/03 04:41 PM (20 years, 4 months ago) |
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My third cousins foaf was trying the PF-tek. He started with 9 jars of BRF which was inoculated almost two months ago. There was no sign of anything for the first two weeks. Then over night, large white patches started to show in four of the jars. Unfortunately, two of the four jars came down with some green nastyness. The remaining jars still haven't showed any sign of life, and the two which started to show promise, just as suddenly as they started, stopped colonizing.
His second batch was 12 jars of BRF which was inoculated two weeks ago. After one week, small white dots were evenly spread all over six of the twelve jars. Now, a week later, almost no progress has been made. No sign of contams, no odour. Only one of the jars have got a slightly larger white patch.
He wants your opionion on:
- what might he be doing wrong? - is there any hope for any of the jars taking into account how long they have been incoulated
Here's the parameters for the first inoculation:
- fine vermiculite - brf imported from india - substrate mixed according to fungifun - cooked in a big pot for about an hour - home made syringe (pink buffalo), completely clear (some very small specks could be seen) - temperature about 72 degrees fahrenheit - complete darkness
Second inoculation:
- same substrate and mixing technique - cooked in a big pot for about an hour - home made syringe (gt), much more visible spores than 1st go - temperature varies from 72 (night) - 80 (day) degrees - complete darkness
He thinks the problem might be the water content of the substrate. Either too much or too little. The verm is stirred with water until there is a small trickle when the container is tilted. Then the brf is added, and now it looks awfully dry. The syringes were 20 ml, dividing on 10 jars, there were quite a visible amount of water when inoculating four holes per jar.
Any advice on what might be wrong would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
-------------------- "To make this mundane world sublime Take half a gram of phanerothyme." Aldous Huxley
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The_LosT_SouL
Experimentor
Registered: 03/22/03
Posts: 83
Last seen: 19 years, 10 months
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Re: Your opinion [Re: muhurgle]
#2107119 - 11/14/03 04:48 PM (20 years, 4 months ago) |
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Well first of all you should be aware that what you are doing is basically right..
I might say, doing home-made serynges are prone to containing the "green nasty" mold just from the air while your doing your spore print. These molds are very easy to get, and very easy to combat.
<His second batch was 12 jars of BRF which was inoculated two weeks ago. After one week, small white dots were evenly spread all over six of the twelve jars. Now, a week later, almost no progress has been made. No sign of contams, no odour. Only one of the jars have got a slightly larger white patch.>
I could only recomend this.
1. Try birthing the cake as is, carefully and steryly cut off the uncolonized part of the cake and put it in the fruiting chamber, or case the colonized substrate
2. Try cold shocking your jars to stimulate the mycelial network into continuing growing. I recently cold shocked jars that I burned by incubating accidentally at about 100 degrees farenheit. After burning them, the mycelium went blue, showing signs of death. After waiting 3 days and no progress, i thought they were doomed. I put them in the fridge for 24 hours, then allowed them to return slowly to room temperature. After the temp was back up to nominal, the cakes re-colonized, and are now ready for my mycelium transfere and or casing and or birthing..
I would further like to help out your friend, maybe he will have some really good ideas to share.. keep me posted... I hope your friend has better luck then me
BTW salt can kill the green mold so can H202 ,research that before you try it
Later, peace
-------------------- The light dimmed, as I further, helplessly staggered down the cold stoned ramp, into the stagnent depths of the Ananaki Catacombs. |The walls are covered in Mushrooms.. Gulp, chomp, glump! mmmmm goood!
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psycho_psilo
shroom-muncher
Registered: 11/10/03
Posts: 23
Last seen: 19 years, 6 months
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also muhurgle, u might want to keep your jars at about 85 degrees during colinization....that should help somewhat. cold shocking like the lost soul said does help a lot too.
-------------------- -TrippiN
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The_LosT_SouL
Experimentor
Registered: 03/22/03
Posts: 83
Last seen: 19 years, 10 months
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btw 85 degrees ferenheit is just under 30 Celcious.. Id say 27 28.. im sure your, '3rd cousins friend of a friend' will experiance many plentiful flushes of beutiful wonderful magical mushrooms...
Here's an idea for your *cough* friend of a friend of your third cuz's.. do casings. people say a n00b shouldn't case until it has more exp, but honestly, I have wasted alot of time doing it PF style. I was going to do a casing, but only 3 of my 12 jars survived the attacks of the green mold. I hate that damned bacterium.
Any other questions, I'll help if I can. I don't know everything, but I know quite a bit hopefully some more people give ya some feed back..
Forums are cool !
Peace
(you can build a cheap incubation chamber for probably around 30 dollars, that will be very effective for keeping your jars at a constant temp.. Ask me if you want some ideas)
-------------------- The light dimmed, as I further, helplessly staggered down the cold stoned ramp, into the stagnent depths of the Ananaki Catacombs. |The walls are covered in Mushrooms.. Gulp, chomp, glump! mmmmm goood!
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muhurgle
Turtles all theway down
Registered: 10/29/03
Posts: 299
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Thanks for your advice and encouragement
I'll try cold shocking and upping the temperature.
-------------------- "To make this mundane world sublime Take half a gram of phanerothyme." Aldous Huxley
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BleedingSickness
Friend OfAttention Whore
Registered: 08/02/02
Posts: 412
Loc: Northern USA
Last seen: 17 years, 5 months
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Re: Your opinion [Re: muhurgle]
#2117330 - 11/17/03 04:07 PM (20 years, 4 months ago) |
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Hmmmm, I would have to say that your friend;) needs to work on sterilization. I would suggest a pressure cooker over the pot method just because it is easier to control and there are less variables to have to worry about. With the pot method, he may heat the jars too much and remove valuable moisture and mess with the water formula needed for the mycellium to finish colonization hence the halted growth.
I would also suggest that he mix the vermiculite, brf, and water in one large bowl put in everything needed for 12 jars(I also recommend that he use the maximum fruiting formula 1/4 cup of brown rice powder 1/2 cup of vermiculite 60 ml (cc) water (1/4 cup = 59 ml)
Wash hands with antibacterial soap, and mix with hands now squeeze a handful of the mix does it allow any water to seep out or does it clump together it should just barely allow any to seep out. Next is how he packs it he should just lightly drop it into the jars up to the threads, never pack it.
Finally I suggest a steady temp of 83 degrees, and if the syringe is home-made why bother making a light one??? Make IT DARK but possibly too late for this huh??
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The_LosT_SouL
Experimentor
Registered: 03/22/03
Posts: 83
Last seen: 19 years, 10 months
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If your going to cook in a big pot.
Mix up your substrate following your favourite tek. Seal the innoc holes with duct tape Cap jars with tinfoil Boil pot of water, reduce heat to the slowest possible boil Set jars in pot and steam for AT LEAST AT VERY LEAST 1.5 hours.
Boiling at 1.5 hours using the PF tek (brf+verm) works perfectly, no moisture loss. And if there is noticable moisture loss, loosen the lids of your jars a little bit and resteam for about 10 minute intervals or so. (it's an idea anyway)
But if you want to skip doing the whole jar process, this might interest you http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat...&PHPSESSID= best of luck
-------------------- The light dimmed, as I further, helplessly staggered down the cold stoned ramp, into the stagnent depths of the Ananaki Catacombs. |The walls are covered in Mushrooms.. Gulp, chomp, glump! mmmmm goood!
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Anonymous
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for brf/verm my foaf prefers to do 2 jars worth at a time cause sometimes when you put it all in a bowl at once the water consistency isnt right.
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Crisis
Stranger
Registered: 08/15/03
Posts: 23
Last seen: 20 years, 3 months
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Re: Your opinion [Re: ]
#2118043 - 11/17/03 07:19 PM (20 years, 4 months ago) |
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If you are keeping tape on your holes you may want to try taking it off after a bit to let some air in, that may help growth
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Cloud9
I don't feel, and it feels great
Registered: 07/03/03
Posts: 1,554
Loc: between here and there
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Re: Your opinion [Re: ]
#2118053 - 11/17/03 07:22 PM (20 years, 4 months ago) |
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In the tech my friend used when mixing the BRF and Verm hes just sprayed them with water when mixed together until when he squeezed them in his hand it held together, but no water came out. This is usualy the way he tests to make sure it has enough water retension in the substrate.
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